Thalía's 'Sixth Sense'

Pop songstress Thalía has named her new album "El Sexto Sentido" not after a song, but after a state of mind.

"It holds a big mystery—the mystery of life, of human feeling, of broken hearts. The mystery of the sixth sense," the singer/actress/businesswoman explains as she prepares to play her new tracks at the studio of producer Estéfano.

"El Sexto Sentido" (The Sixth Sense), due July 19 on EMI Latin, is Thalía's 11th studio album. In a sense it is her most ambitious to date, even more so than her 2003 self-titled English-language debut.

"In a way, I feel like I'm living in my sixth sense," Thalía says. "I'm very receptive to everything around me ... The sixth sense liberates you from the [other] five senses, which are tricky ... It makes you listen to that inside voice -- your intuition -- which is never wrong."

"El Sexto Sentido" will be released simultaneously in the United States, Latin America and Japan, and, a month later, in continental Europe, Canada, Australia and the rest of Southeast Asia.

While the album is in Spanish, it includes English versions of three songs, including first single "Amar Sin Ser Amada." The English tracks will allow the album to be released under the English title "The Sixth Sense" in Europe and Asia, where Thalía has a broad fan base. The track listing will be changed to accommodate the English tracks first.

In the United States, aside from the major promotional efforts awarded to an artist like Thalía, "El Sexto Sentido" will also be the first Spanish-language album to have a pre-order campaign through Apple Computer's iTunes. Buyers who pre-order the set can download free norteno and reggaet0n versions of Thalía's single (the reggaeton version is produced by Hector "El Bambino") and a clip of the making of the video. The two bonus tracks can be obtained only through iTunes.

Domestically, in addition to the 15-track CD, EMI will also release a luxury "fan" CD/DVD edition that includes a 25-minute electronic press kit.

Even though she is involved in myriad projects -- including acting and maintaining a clothing line, a candy line and an eyewear line -- Thalía says, her main focus is her music, which took a turn with the release of a Spanish-language album, also titled "Thalía," in 2002.

That album teamed her with songwriter/producer Estéfano and yielded the hit "Tu y Yo."

"It was the turning point for more serious music," Thalía says. "I was presented as an interpreter surrounded by a team of professionals who really knew their business, musically speaking. That album gave me immeasurable rewards, because it changed my style. Not greatly, but it changed it."

"El Sexto Sentido" follows the path of "Thalía" in its eclectic nature -- it includes heartbreaking ballads, dance tracks and straight-ahead pop -- and in its very well-crafted and highly personalized songs, most courtesy of Estéfano.

Estéfano also contributed some tracks to her English-language debut. Despite a strong single ("I Want You," featuring Fat Joe), that album had modest success in the United States, selling 196,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Now, Thalía returns to her roots.

"Everything in this album has to do with me," Thalía says. "It's everything that has happened, all the tattoos of experience that I carry in my soul."